College Sports Blog

Texas Tech WR coach Sonny Cumbie confirms he’s moving to TCU

ORG XMIT: *S0410407869* Texas Tech quarterback Sonny Cumbie, who entered the game as the nation's leading passer, passes against Oklahoma in the fourth quarter in Norman, Okla., Saturday, Oct. 2, 2004. Cumbie committed four turnovers; a fumble and three interceptions. He was 36-for-55 for 369 yards, 60 below his average. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki) OKSO10710212004xSports

Cumbie, a former starting Red Raider quarterback and the current longest-tenured coach, is the first coach to leave the Texas Tech program since head coach Kliff Kingsbury was hired last year.

“This was not something that I sought out or was looking for,” Cumbie told Chris Level and Brian Hanni on their show ‘Tech Talk.’ “I think sometimes whenever someone leaves you automatically assume there’s something dysfunctional about it or there’s somebody that’s mad or anything like that. That was not the case. This is a situation where I was presented it, contacted by them a while back about the opportunity to be the co-offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach.”

Some Texas Tech fans are upset and see the move as a lateral one.

However, Cumbie will probably have more influence at TCU than he did at Texas Tech. He was given the title “co-offensive coordinator” along with inside receivers coach Eric Morris, but Kingsbury is the team’s chief offensive coordinator.

There simply isn’t much room to move up as long as Kingsbury assumes the offensive coordinator role in addition to being head coach. Kingsbury has final say.

The two met a few years ago on the recruiting trail, became friends and began bouncing offensive ideas off of each other.

“He was at Oklahoma State for a long time, worked there with Dana (Holgorsen),” Cumbie said on the radio interview. “Worked for Todd Monken and then this last year had the opportunity to be offensive coordinator at Houston. He did a good job down there at Houston. When he contacted me about this job at TCU, I was excited to be able to work with him. He’s a sharp mind.”

Cumbie was a very strong recruiter at Texas Tech. Some of the Red Raiders’ best players in the 2014 signing class are Cumbie’s so there has been some concern they could switch their commitments to TCU if they have an offer or Cumbie offers them.

The former Red Raider originally from Snyder, Texas, said he won’t negatively recruit against Texas Tech.

Cumbie was a graduate assistant in Mike Leach’s final year. Tommy Tuberville promoted him to inside receivers coach and then Kingsbury retained him and moved him to work with the outside receivers.

“There’s never any negative recruiting,” Cumbie said during his radio interview. “I just feel like when you’re talking to a kid that you want to talk to them about the school you’re at and why you should be there. Not why you should be somewhere else. From that standpoint, why would I do anything negative toward this place that’s given me this opportunity? And I played here, G.A.’ed, coached. We’ve all grown up here, so that doesn’t enter into the equation at all and it wasn’t that way at Texas Tech.”

TCU got a very well-regarded coach. I’ll break down Cumbie’s contributions to Texas Tech in a separate post in the near future.

Cumbie was not asked if he would stay at Texas Tech for the Red Raiders’ National University Holiday Bowl game, but his words implied he will not be available. He needs to begin recruiting duties with the Horned Frogs and there is a giant conflict of interests.

“You just can’t predict who’s going to call or what opportunities are going to present themselves,” he said to the hometown radio crowd. “I’m excited. I don’t think there would be many more opportunities in the Big 12 to go and stay in-state and be able to coach quarterbacks and have more responsibilities.”It just so happened to be TCU. It’s an interesting dynamic to it, but it doesn’t in any way change the way I feel about (Texas Tech) and the people out here.”

Interested TCU and Texas Tech fans can listen to Cumbie’s full interview on Double T 104.3 FM by clicking here.

Editor Picks

Comments

To post a comment, log into your chosen social network and then add your comment below. Your comments are subject to our Terms of Service and the privacy policy and terms of service of your social network. If you do not want to comment with a social network, please consider writing a letter to the editor.